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Their View: NMSU: We are here for our communities

By Manuel T. Pacheco / For the Sun-News

Posted:
01/14/2013 01:00:00 AM MST

New Mexico is a place where the present is always accompanied — and often nurtured — by the past. It is a place where the past plays an important role in reminding us of our values, traditions and culture, even as we work to forge ahead into the future. This two-part relationship has enabled our state to be on the cutting edge of science and technology while still preserving and valuing our important history.

I have observed this relationship throughout my life, during my childhood in New Mexico and in my adult years, which mostly have required me to be away from the state, but always have included regular visits to spend time here with family and friends.

This relationship was underscored by the events of the past year as we celebrated our state's Centennial, and in many ways, the history of New Mexico State University and its relationship to the community it serves also reflect this important aspect of our state.

Before New Mexico State University was founded in 1888, Doña Ana County was a much different place than it is now, and like many other places where a university was founded, this quiet county grew and developed in such a way that today it is not only our second largest in New Mexico in population, but also a dynamic, modern regional center, which offers quality of life that is often nationally recognized.

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NMSU contributed significantly to that growth and development, as did other historic events, such as the arrival of the railroad and the establishment of military operations nearby. But still today, the impact of the university here and in our surrounding area remains a major key to our county's success.

NMSU is now a university of 16,000 students on our main campus, with 9,000 more on our DACC campus. Over 72 percent of the students on our main campus come from New Mexico with nearly a third coming right here from Do&ntild;a Ana County and Las Cruces. These students have the opportunity to attend a world-class research university — one ranked by U.S. News & World Report as a top-tier institution and rated by Forbes magazine in the top 25 of America's Best Colleges among public institutions — right here in their backyard. We employ about 4,800 faculty and staff and provide a livelihood for a significant percentage of the citizens in this county. Expanded and renovated facilities such as our residence halls, the new campuses of DACC, and our new Center for the Arts added hundreds of new job opportunities for local citizens. When we prosper, so does all of Doña Ana County.

But the impact of our university also goes beyond its physical presence in this community. NMSU makes a substantial difference in all sorts of "communities," whether academic, business, research or otherwise. NMSU, like all of the nation's 106 land-grant universities founded under the Morrill Act of 1862, was built on the idea that all people — not only the rich — should have access to a quality education, and that the university would extend the research and knowledge we produce to the communities we serve.

Our teaching excellence over the years in the colleges of Education, Engineering and Health and Social Services, for example, has helped meet the critical need for teachers and administrators in our state's schools; highway engineers, particularly with expertise in bridge design and safety, on our state's roadways; and nursing professionals in medical centers across New Mexico. During our history here, we have educated substantial numbers of the state's teachers, engineers, and health care workers.

Our College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences supports New Mexico's agricultural tradition with high-tech outreach to people across New Mexico through our 33 Cooperative Extension Service offices and 13 Agricultural Science Centers. Our agents, specialists and researchers team up to provide research-based knowledge to the citizens of the state, whether to homeowners seeking horticultural advice, through efforts like the extensive Master Gardener programs in Santa Fe County and elsewhere, or to agricultural producers themselves, whether dairy owners in Clovis, vineyard operators in Corrales, or pecan and chile growers right here in Las Cruces.

Our College of Business has MBA graduates serving in key roles in businesses across the country, and our Arrowhead Technology Incubator is giving high-tech businesses of the future a chance to get established and get off the ground with solid fundamentals to build upon.

Our impact ranges across the world, too, in countries like Vietnam, Egypt and Senegal, and across scientific and engineering discovery, like modernizing hydroelectric power, controlling the spread of bird flu and battling the deadly dengue virus.

Recently, for instance, researchers in our College of Arts and Sciences' Physics Department completed a 20-year study of the tectonic processes at work on the Tibetan Plateau. The team of university researchers is sharing its findings that have come about through the use of deep seismic reflection profiling to explore the continental lithosphere. The NMSU researchers have learned a lot about what is happening to our planet's surface, and some of the new knowledge gives us surprising new insights into these processes — insights that can help us better prepare for changes to come.

The time it took those geologic processes to unfold beneath the Earth's surface make the university's 125-year history seem like the blink of an eye, but what an impressive list of accomplishments has happened during that blink!

Yes, NMSU has had a tremendous impact throughout its history on the physical community that surrounds us in Doña Ana County. But we also have made a significant difference statewide, nationally and internationally in those other "communities" we have served through our teaching, outreach and research efforts for more than a century.

By remembering our own roots and renewing our ongoing dedication to both our agricultural tradition and cutting-edge, scientific research, we are fulfilling the goals of our land-grant mission and pledge to have even more far-reaching impact on our communities for decades to come.

Manuel T. Pacheco is interim president at New Mexico State University.

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